


Still

by GalahadWilder



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Angst, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Ml season 3 spoilers, Post Puppeteer 2, Puppeteer 2, The Fluff is NOT Mild This is ME We're Talking About
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 04:39:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19804939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalahadWilder/pseuds/GalahadWilder
Summary: After Marinette's awkward non-confession, Adrien's feeling like he's hurt her. Badly. So he turns to the smartest girl he knows for advice.The statue prank was just him and Marinette... Ladybug wouldn't know about it, should be safe to share without blowing identities. Right?





	Still

“I think I may have hurt my friend today,” Chat said that evening, after Puppeteer was defeated and they’d both gone home and then come back.

He’d asked her to swing by in the evening. There was something on his mind, she knew, and it wasn’t something good. What he said… well, not unexpected, but certainly not what she’d feared.

“What happened?” she said, trying not to think about her conversation with Adrien in the back of the car. This wasn’t about her problems tonight. He’d asked her here because he needed her advice.

Chat sighed. “She… I, I wasn’t expecting it,” he said. “She’s always been so nervous around me, and I just…” He grimaced, swallowed. “We were at the wax exhibit today and I thought maybe I could do something to make her smile.”

“You were at the wax exhibit?” Ladybug said, trying—and failing—to keep her voice level. There weren’t that many people at the museum today. One wrong thought, and his identity would be—

“Yeah,” he said. “I mean, it was just supposed to be fun, you know? But… she’s always so…” He sighed. “She was one of my first friends and I just… I was starting to think maybe she doesn’t like me?”

Ladybug grimaced. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Do you know why?”

Chat grinned ruefully. “No idea,” he said. “But I just… I wanted to see her smile.”

Ladybug felt her eyes begin to water. “It sounds like… you really care about this girl.”

Chat laughed. “Yeah, a bit,” he said. “Anyway I thought, well, maybe a small prank might help her feel more comfortable? So I pretended to be a statue.”

Ladybug’s breath caught in her lungs. Like a shard of glass lodged in her esophagus. _No_.

“And she… well, she said a bunch of things to statue-me that she’s never…” He looked down at the street. “Apparently she likes me.” He glanced at Ladybug. “Like, the way that I like you.”

_The way that I like you._ Ladybug couldn’t breathe. _The girl I love says my jokes aren’t very good…_

“Maybe that’s a… good thing?” she found herself saying. “You—you said you wanted to make this girl happy, and, and, you _did_ , so—”

“That’s the thing,” Chat said. “I don’t think she wanted me to know.” He hung his head. “When I asked her about it, she denied everything, but… well, she was definitely lying. I tried to let her down gently by saying I was in love with someone else—” His soft gaze turned to Ladybug, like a spear right through her heart. “—but, well… I could see it still hurt. And I didn’t… I never meant to—” He squeezed his eyes shut. “I just wanted to make her smile, Bugaboo.”

_The girl I love says my jokes aren’t very good._

Ladybug laid her trembling hand on top of his. “You—you do,” she said. “Adrien… you make me smile every day.”

His head snapped around to her, his eyes full of confusion.

“And I’m, I’m sorry if I—” she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “If I gave you the impression that I don’t like your jokes. I do. I love them.” She stared at her feet. “I think you—you should work on your timing, is all.”

Chat just stared.

“God,” Ladybug said. “I can’t believe I tried to kiss you thinking you were a statue.” She swallowed. “Actually, I, I, I can’t believe I tried to kiss the statue.” Her fingers tugged in each other as her hands danced, burning nervous energy. “Talk about… talk about embarrassing, right?”

“Marinette?” Chat’s voice was soft. So soft.

She couldn’t take it anymore. She just… he was… she burst into tears. “I’m—I’m—I’m a… a mess, Chaton,” she gasped. “I’m not—not—what you think I am, and…”

He took her hand. “You’re the girl I spent the whole day trying to cheer up,” he murmured. “Everything else doesn’t matter.”

She sobbed, wiped her eyes.

He took her hand—he was trembling too, she realized—and placed it against his chest. She could feel his heartbeat through the leather, wild and terrified and uncontrolled. “I… Marinette,” he said. “I need you to be honest with me this time.”

She closed her eyes and nodded.

“If we’re not friends,” he said, “then what am I to you?”

“You’re… my partner,” she whispered. “And you’re the boy I… the boy I…”

“Love?” he supplied.

She nodded again.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” he said, raising her hand to his face. “You are the love of my life.”

“You only just met me,” she protested. Her fingers caressed his cheek.

“I’ve only just met… everybody,” he responded. “But it—it doesn’t take much to know that—” He looked away, like he couldn’t keep looking at her and talking at the same time. “That you will always be the greatest and most important thing in my life,” he finished, hushed.

She shifted her hand, wrapped his fingers around her own. “And you’ll be mine.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

They gazed down at the empty street below.

“I’m glad that wasn’t our first kiss,” Ladybug said finally.

“At least I remembered this one,” Chat replied with a smile.


End file.
